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Abstract
The following chapters developed from my interest in Faulkners dialogue with other writers. More specifically, they developed from my interest in those moments where acts of readingwhether stated or impliedappear integral to characterization or to the reinforcement of theme. The subject of Faulkners acts of reading or evocations of text was a subject that, of course, demanded parameters. As I was drawn to relevant moments within The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Sanctuary, Flags in the Dust, and The Wild Palms, the parameters for this dissertation manifested themselves in a rather organic way. First, these works are interrelated at a fundamental level because they are elaborations, I believe, of an ongoing dialogue that Faulkner held with Macbeths dark and unforgettable soliloquy. In Shakespeares tragedy, the King proclaims that life is nothing more than a tale / told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing. Faulkners complex textseach in its own waysearch the question of lifes meaningfulness. The felt and heard presence of Macbeth provides us with a ground for understanding the acts of reading or textual echoes in Faulkners works, for they are, in effect, other avenues of approach to the existential questions raised by Macbeths speech. Faulkners tendency is to grapple with the kinds of cosmic and philosophic issues raised in Macbethsfamous soliloquy, and he is drawn to other writers, such as Tennyson, Shelley, Flaubert, andSchopenhauer, who display similarly dark preoccupations.